My name: Jennifer. My goal: Enticing you to attend the CFSA Conference 05Nov2021-15Nov2021. For CCCC students, there are scholarships available by contacting Robin Kohanowich, rkohanowich@cccc.edu for student scholarships
Here is the 2021 CFSA Conference link: https://web.cvent.com/event/37aeb8c5-6a6f-40c6-b758-e5e5056c59dd/summary
Start with breakfast, the first meal of the day. Several years ago, when I arrived at the local hotel-CFSA Conference Center, I greeted the workers at the CFSA Check-In Table. Because I was volunteering at the check-in later in the day, I was free to visit a few early exhibits and browse books and boxes, sights and sounds.
The food, provided by the organic farmers and prepared with a special chef working with the hotel staff. The traditional breakfast foods were offered and upgraded: range free eggs for Eggs Benedict. Home grown bacon of mouth-watering apple wood smoked flavor (you’ve tasted it, perhaps?). However, what I really want to talk about was the most unusual breakfast I had seen. Rome, Italy was a distant memory. The dessert offerings from dinner usually made their way to the breakfast buffet because the Italians are, well, Italian. The serving staff never waste eggs, cream, cheese, lemon, berries, but re-purpose them instead from dinner to the breakfast buffet.
At the CFSA conference, for the first time ever, I encountered frissee lettuce, fresh, green greeting the morning, ruffled, delicate, paired with a silver chafing dish of the most delicious organic peanut butter, ever. I was amazed at the flavor combination and pairing. Another conference attendee and I looked at each other, simultaneously picked up a china plate, and helped ourselves. I think we even sat together at the same table and discussed, “Who would have thought of eating frisee for breakfast?” “I’m going to remember this when I get home.” “I would have never thought of pairing these two.”
To this day, I’m glad I sampled that audacious way to begin the day.
To this day, I enjoy sliced apples, organic of course, paired with nut butters, most usually grown right here in North Carolina. This past week I searched my refrigerator for the last of the pecan-walnut butter, only to decide it had vanished. Ah, well, I’ve made the entry onto the grocery list hanging nearby.
The CFSA Conference didn’t just provide the color-outside-the-lines breakfast. One or two evenings later, I was sitting in front of the ballroom. Again, the meal was delicious, organic, produced from local farms and prepared by the organic chef and the conference center staff. Dessert was announced: organic vanilla ice cream and silver chafing dishes of what was evidently wonderful chocolate sauce. I know the chocolate was outstanding. When I politely waited until the end of the keynote speech, I found delicious organic vanilla ice cream, but I scraped the serving spoon through the last trails of the chocolate sauce.
It’s expected that the CFSA will break the stereotypes, color outside the lines, and yes allow attendees to graze during the Keynote Speech. Welcome yourself to the 2021 CFSA Conference and remember to leave at least something in the chafing dish, if only to remind me to attend next year.
Content: it was outside at an exhibit that I saw a re-designed tractor that had been crafted for developing countries. I seem to remember the tractor folded up and packed into a box for shipping. The engine was probably not larger than a riding lawn mower engine. The tractor has a small seat, similar to a riding lawn mower. Its size was a little bigger than a roto-tiller, but not much. The tractor had all the attachments that would allow a beginning farmer in a third world country to purchase, at a greatly reduced price, a tractor that could be shipped in a box, assembled easily with graphic instructions, and was outfitted with many, many attachments. The cost was radically lower than what we see in the United States. The attachments were useful and adaptable. The designer/creator was there to sell, to answer questions, and to interact with conference attendees who offered other adaption ideas.
If I hadn’t attended that year’s conference, I would have never seen the tractor. Here is a similar example:
There are other innovative, single implements offered at the CFSA conference. A few might spark your own ideas sitting on your back-burner. For example, several decades ago, friends in Kentucky decided to raise green peppers; you know they grow as a low bushy plant, necessitating bend-over or stooping to harvest. The friends found a small motor, a set of wheels, and a half-sheet of plywood. They crafted a slow-moving sit-down platform that rolled between the green peppers rows. The harvest was less work.
The CFSA Conference takes deep-dives into single topics. Trad Cotter, who is a mushroom (mycology) specialist, provided Standing Room Only (SRO) workshops. His presentations were extremely well attended. At the time, Trad has a mushroom research facility in South Carolina. When he wasn’t presenting workshops, he was answering questions at his display. The CFSA Conference is your chance to tap local expertise.
For hands-on ideas, another farm had an outdoors demo for how to start a mushroom log.
If it’s funding you need, there are several vendors who provide access to funding.
Again, it’s expected that the CFSA Conference will break stereotypes, color outside the lines, and allow you to see both machine and tool innovations and provide deep dives into one or two subjects. Plan to attend the 2021 CFSA Conference. Student scholarships are available from Robin Kohanowich, rkohanowich@cccc.edu.
The Student Farm at CCCC 